PITTSBURGH, Oct. 23 -- After skating little over the last two years following shoulder surgery, Angela Nikodinov arrived at Skate America just hoping to compete.
The 24-year-old American did that and more Saturday, winning the women's title after completing 10 jumps while the rest of the field fell -- literally.
Russia's Tatiana Totmianina, left, lies on the ice after she fell from a lift by her partner Maxim Marinin during the pairs free skate competition of Skate America.
(Keith Srakocic - AP)
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_____ 2004 Summer Olympics _____
• Look back at the Athens Games, highlighted by Michael Phelps's eight medals and marked by unfounded worries over terrorism.
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In the pairs competition, world champion pairs skater Tatiana Totmianina of Russia fell headfirst onto the ice during the free skate.
Totmianina's partner, Maxim Marinin, had just lifted her into the air in a one-handed lift when they lost their balance. Totmianina tumbled to the ice as the crowd gasped.
She lay motionless for about five minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.
U.S. figure skating officials said Totmianina was conscious when she was taken from the ice. No information about the extent of her injuries was immediately available.
Totmianina and Marinin, in first place after the short program, were the last couple to skate in the pair competition.
Japan's Miki Ando, who led entering the women's free skate, fell while attempting a quadruple salchow and a triple lutz. She ended up third, behind Canada's Cynthia Phaneuf, who also couldn't complete several triple jumps.
"To be able to get myself at this level and still not be at my top, it's really going to make me better for nationals," said Nikodinov, who skated last and finished with an overall score of 149.50.
Nikodinov is a perennial competitor. She first skated in a senior event in 1996 and has had several top-10 finishes at Skate America. Her longtime coach, Elena Tcherkasskaia, died in 2001 of cancer; Nikodinov now skates with Igor Pashkevich.
"I wanted to come back and prove to [Eleanor] that I could do it," Nikodinov said with her new coach at her side.
Ando said through an interpreter that she was disappointed she couldn't do what she had set out to perform. Her program was the most difficult, in part because of the quadruple jump. Ando is the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition.
In ice dancing, Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto won the competition for the second straight year.
Dressed in gypsy-inspired costumes, they skated a program with perfectly synchronized turns that brought the crowd to its feet.
"Our energy felt really good," Agosto said.
They were followed by Israel's Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski and Canada's Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe. Both pairs said placing in this competition gives them momentum entering Skate Canada this week.
"It's probably one of the best performances we've given at the beginning of the season," Lowe said.
Under figure skating's new scoring system, every technical element in a program -- jumps, spins, footwork -- has a point value. In the end, the skater with the most points wins, removing most of the subjectivity.
